Steve Ballmer Purchases Los Angeles Clippers for $2 Billion

The former Microsoft CEO, submitted a winning bid of $2 billion to Shelly Sterling yesterday, with the wife of the Los Angeles Clippers' racist owner acknowledging in a statement that she had agreed to sell.

"I am delighted that we are selling the team to Steve, who will be a terrific owner," Shelly said in a statement. "We have worked for 33 years to build the Clippers into a premiere NBA franchise. I am confident that Steve will take the team to new levels of success."

We'd be delighted, too, if we just made $2 BILLION.

The previous high price for an NBA franchise had been $550 million.

Shelly Sterling and Ballmer signed the final papers of the sale shortly before midnight yesterday in Los Angeles. The former said she is acting under her authority as the sole trustee of the Sterling family trust, which owns the Clippers.

According to ESPN's Darren Rovell, Donald Sterling was recently found by experts to be mentally incapacitated.

He was caught on audio tape a few weeks ago berated girlfriend V. Stiviano for publicly associating with African-Americans and other equally distasteful comments led to Commissioner Adam Silver banning Sterling from the NBA for life.

The executive also said he would work with the league's 29 other owners to force Sterling to sell his team.

I love basketball," Ballmer said. "And I intend to do everything in my power to ensure that the Clippers continue to win - and win big - in Los Angeles.

"L.A. is one of the world's great cities - a city that embraces inclusiveness, in exactly the same way that the NBA and I embrace inclusiveness. I am confident that the Clippers will in the coming years become an even bigger part of the community."

Ballmer stepped down from Microsoft in February and is worth approximately $20 billion.